Past Remembering by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online Page B

scrambled eggs, bread, blackberry jam and tea. It’s all ready. Would you like me to take your coats?’
    ‘Thank you, Maisie.’ Alma followed her into the house that Andrew John had bought for his wife when he had returned to Pontypridd after working in a London hospital. Bethan had altered it beyond all recognition during the last two years. The fine lawns had been dug up and turned into vegetable and potato gardens. The once elegant, tiled hall was awash with children’s coats, prams, bicycles and rubber boots. Answering the plea for homes for evacuees, Bethan had put her name down to take four, but the hard pressed authorities had prevailed on her good nature, and she had ended up with six, plus a young girl who helped her to keep the brood in order. The maid Andrew had engaged before the war had long since departed to earn four times what Bethan could afford to pay her in the munitions factory, so she had taken an unmarried mother, Maisie Crockett, from the workhouse to help out, and feeling sorry for her, had ended up with Maisie’s child as well. Three women and nine children, including Bethan’s two, made for a very full house, but there was no sign of anyone except Maisie.
    ‘Just stack the breakfast dishes when you’ve finished with them, Mrs Charlie. I’ll get them when I come in. It’s my morning for putting our order into Griffiths’ shop and Pegler’s Stores, so you’ll have the house to yourself until the children finish school, and even then they won’t come near Mrs John’s rooms,’ Maisie reassured them shyly as they walked across the hall.
    ‘Mrs John said Liza Clark had taken the children down to Graig Avenue.’ Alma glanced into what had been Andrew’s pride and joy, the spacious formal drawing room. Bethan had packed the best furniture into the old groom’s accommodation above the stables, and a threadbare, faded carpet, a couple of sagging sofas, and overflowing baskets of home-made wooden and rag toys were all the furnishings that adorned the once expensively decorated room.
    ‘The weather’s so fine, Mrs John thought the little ones would benefit from some fresh air. So Liza offered to take them over the mountain for a picnic.’ Maisie led the way up the stairs.
    Alma was amazed at Bethan’s powers of organisation at such short notice, unless she’d sacrificed a quiet day she’d arranged for herself to Charlie’s unexpected leave.
    All the windows in the house had been opened wide to the beautiful spring morning. She paused on the landing and gazed out over the fields. Barely two miles outside the town and they could have been in the heart of the countryside. The scent of apple and cherry blossom mixed with bluebells and newly ploughed earth wafted in on the warm, fresh air. Birds were singing. In the distance she could hear a dog barking and sheep bleating, and she suddenly realised that it had been a long time since she’d taken the leisure to enjoy the simple things in life.
    Sensing Charlie waiting behind her she climbed up the final half a dozen steps. Bethan had been right. Andrew’s dressing room was tiny but, just as she’d promised, it was also cosy. Two small easy chairs stood either side of the window, a round table between them set with chafing dishes warmed by candles, an electric toaster, bread, jam, sugar, milk and a scraping of butter in a small pot that Alma hoped Charlie wouldn’t touch in case it was the last of Bethan’s ration. Charlie dropped his kitbag by the door and in two strides was at the window.
    ‘I’ll bring up the boiling water for the tea and anything else you want, then I’ll be off,’ Maisie said.
    ‘There’s no need to wait on us, Maisie, I know where the kitchen is.’
    ‘You sure, Mrs Charlie? Mrs John said you were to rest.’
    ‘We’ll be fine, Maisie. Thank you for all this.’
    ‘It was nothing. Besides, I enjoyed doing it.’ Maisie bristled with pleasure at the praise before closing the door.
    Charlie unbuttoned his